Charm personified I'm sure!

Posted by Neil Platt65dc on January 01, 2009

Happy 2009 everyone!I hope that everybody had a wonderful evening’s celebration, in whatever manner you chose. I know I did, obviously at home, but surrounded by my closest friends and chatting, reminiscing and laughing our heads off.

A classic example of the type of giggle I mean was caused by a clanger dropped by my dear brother. We were having a conversation about boxed set TV series I could watch having finished the West Wing, 24, and having The Wire. My brother’s solution was, now wait for it, Six Feet Under!!! Having thought about it overnight, I might have to go and get it just for a laugh!

I’ll write again soon.All my love,Neil

Personally, my lasting memory from that evening was the text message we sent out to those friends who hadn’t managed to join us for the evening. It read

‘Happy New Year, I’m sorry I missed it!’

and was accompanied by a photo of Neil covered by white sheet with only his feet poking out of the end and a luggage label tied to his big toe.

Anyone who had ever driven on a car journey and had the pleasure of Neil being their passenger had been witness to his extreme attention seeking tactics. He would start off distracting fidgeting, playing with the radio, turning dials and knobs to see if he could get a reaction, like a child doing star jumps to be noticed. If you could ignore him long enough you could get him to say ‘I’m bored, don’t ignore me! Give me some attention!’

You can imagine then, why the reaction from the first recipient of the message was something like

‘Nice try Neil, I know you’re not dead yet because that label would be tying both your big toes together so that your legs wouldn’t fall off the gurney. Have a good night, I’ll see you tomorrow.’

Foiled by a technical hitch!

Fuelled by alcohol, I think that text message was sent out to a few too many people, and perhaps to some who were not quite as in tune with Neil’s sense of humour as others, but I don’t think anyone would have denied us all trying to have a laugh considering the circumstances. – Louise (2013)